The School of Industrial Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology is one of the longest-established engineering schools in Europe, with a strong presence in the international research and education community, especially in the field of Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation, which are at the core of the undergraduate BSc program. The graduate programs (MSc and PhD) in Innovation Management & Technology Entrepreneurship attract top-level students from all over the world. Researchers are member of the KNAW accredited Beta research school.

The Group

The Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing (ITEM) group is part of the School of Industrial Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology. The group consists of faculty, Ph.D. candidates and staff who participate in and contribute to the research, educational and service program of the ITEM group. The research capacity of the groups consists of 24 researchers, including leading experts in the field of new product development (Fred Langerak and Tony DiBenedetto) and entrepreneurship & new business creation (Sjoerd Romme and Geert Duijsters). Moreover, the group has close collaboration with two prominent scholars in entrepreneurship (Scott Shane) and innovation management (Abbie Griffin). This program focuses on New Product and Venture Development Processes and is one of the leading programs in the world. The program emphasizes means for measuring and improving the process of conceiving, developing, and launching new products and ventures. As such, it encompasses both strategic and operational activities of new product and venture development. While the program covers the full range of new products and its underlying design, development and commercialization processes in new ventures as well as established firms, its primary focus is on high-tech products. Faculty from the ITEM group closely collaborates with colleagues from Tilburg University within the Brabant Center of Entrepreneurship.

You as a Ph.D. candidate are invited to apply for participating in our research program. The appointment involves a four-year position as a Ph.D. student.

The research project is sponsored by KIC InnoEnergy S.E., co-location Benelux, which is a European Knowledge & Innovation Community focusing on sustainable energy. For more information, see the KIC InnoEnergy S.E. website (http://www.kic-innoenergy.com/).

The research project aims to contribute to realizing the KIC’s objective to generate economic activity and societal benefits based on technological innovations in the area of sustainable energy (KPI’s targeted: number of start-ups and new business creation in general). The project objectives are:

Provide insight into how to stimulate technology commercialization, both from the US and the European context and provide insight into practical guidelines and instruments for crossing the “valley of death”.

Learn from commercialization activities performed by university incubators and industrial firms venturing divisions in the area of the co-location and elsewhere in order to increase understanding of conditions and effectiveness of such practices

Map current technology commercialization activities performed by KIC InnoEnergy S.E.

Create insight into potential boosting factors and barriers regarding technology commercialization in the KIC InnoEnergy community

Redesign commercialization efforts and processes in KIC InnoEnergy and facilitate the implementation of this redesign in CC Benelux.

As a successful candidate you are expected to be involved in conducting the research project, in collaboration with members of the ITEM group, with the aim to publish in top scholarly journals. The project entails qualitative as well as quantitative research methods. Part of the project will be a stay of half a year in another (European) region.

Requirements

You as an applicant should have a master degree in a relevant academic discipline (Industrial Engineering, Innovation Management, Strategic Management, Research Master in Business, possibly also in combination with a more technical background as a Bachelor degree), or you expect to complete such a degree in the near future. You should have affinity with technology commercialization, new business development and/or technology entrepreneurship. Furthermore, you should have affinity with the Benelux culture.

Conditions of employment

We offer you a full-time employment as a Ph.D. student. The employment is based upon a contract with a salary conform CAO of the Dutch Universities, varying between € 2042 in the 1st year and € 2612 in the 4th year. You will also get a Holliday allowance of 8% of your annual salary, as well as an End-of-year allowance of 8.3% of your annual salary and a good pension-saving scheme.

Working at Eindhoven University means working in a professional environment in which we stimulate people. We offer you a broad package of fringe benefits, including an excellent technical infrastructure, child care, moving expenses, savings schemes, and excellent sports facilities.

Additional information

You as a candidate should send us your curriculum vitae, M.Sc. and B.Sc. grades list and a cover letter of max 2 A4 pages with (1) an underpinning of your personal motivation for the research project, and (2) a first proposal of how you would approach the project, by uploading them on our website by using the 'apply now' button before October 15th 2012. Please do not send us your applications by email.